President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday pledged to enhance economic opportunities for the veterans of the country’s war of independence, while also ensuring they receive medical aid and other benefits.
Speaking at the War Veterans National Assembly, which was attended by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga at the ZANU PF headquarters, Mnangagwa said the war veterans will vote at the party’s elective Congress in October. He said:
From now on, the war veterans’ league as other leagues will be represented as you, when we have our national elective congress, this in terms of our practice will be held in October.
According to NewsDay, the congress will determine how Mnangagwa will proceed until the end of his presidential term in 2028.
Mnangagwa said his administration is working on addressing the challenges facing the ex-combatants. He said:
My administration is ready to facilitate the broad-based empowerment of your membership so that you fully participate in the economy as well as the ongoing industrialization, and modernization of our motherland.
I direct the minister to quicken the implementation of interventions towards addressing the challenges affecting this special constituency.
Speaking during the same event, national secretary of the war veterans Douglas Mahiya, said:
The war veterans are in full support of the PVOs Bill as it will act to counter NGOs which are working with foreign entities to undermine the ruling ZANU PF.
I would also like to encourage you to ensure that we set up ZANU PF-aligned NGOs to counter the influence of these regime change entities.
President, as we speak we will be launching our own NGO in the next month or two.
In the run-up to the 2023 general elections, war veterans demanded that Mnangagwa approve “commensurate benefits” before they could back his re-election bid.
Their demands included loan guarantees and rebates for duty-free car imports, according to a Central Committee report that was tabled at the party’s elective congress.
In 1997, thousands of former freedom fighters were given a lump sum of $ 50,000 each after they protested against the lack of pensions. This led to the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar.
The ZANU PF War Veterans League, formed in 2022, is an integral part of the ruling ZANU PF party in Zimbabwe.
